California: Sausalito

After we left Muir Woods on Friday, we headed back towards the south, stopping in the cute little community of Sausalito, which is just on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge. After replenishing with some Gatorade, we stopped by a small winery called Bacchus & Venus for a little wine tasting. Although Chad is not a fan of wine at all, I was really excited to stop and do some sampling since we were so close to wine country. I cannot even begin to explain what a good sport Chad was about going there! Not only did he wait patiently while I sampled a flight of 4 different wines, but he even agreed to sample a flight for himself! He wasn't really a fan of any of them, but I was just so proud that he tried everything--and did it without complaining! As most of our friends know, Chad isn't normally very interested in trying anything new or unusual when it comes to food and drink, so this was a pretty big deal to me. I was a tad disappointed that he didn't find anything that he liked (not that I really expected him to), but I sampled several wines that were really great (now I'm wishing I would have written some of them down). The staff was very friendly and helpful and the shop was really cute. There was even an art gallery upstairs.

After our wine tasting we walked down the street to Horizons, a restaurant recommended by the staff at Bacchus & Venus. I had left my good camera in the car when we headed in to Sausalito, since I didn't think there would be a need for pictures at dinner, but I was completely wrong! The restaurant sat right on the bay, and our outside table had amazing views of the water, Alcatraz, Angel Island and downtown San Francisco. The food was incredibly good and beautifully presented, although Chad wasn't especially impressed with the smallish portion size. I had an awesome portobello mushroom "tower" that was significantly better than the meal we'd had at the restaurant in Carmel, and it wasn't even quite as expensive! This was probably my favorite meal while we were on vacation. The food and views were great, although I will say that the service left a little to be desired. Our server disappeared a few too many times during dinner and then sat by while this huge group of businesspeople sat down beside us and then started taking over our table right before we left. It was incredibly bizarre!

We were pretty pooped by the time we got back to the hotel, and although we contemplated going to an Oakland A's game (the Giants weren't in town while we were there), we decided to just relax in our room for the evening. We flipped on the TV right as the movie Hot Fuzz was starting, and I was so excited since we hadn't seen it and I was such a fan of their first movie Shaun of the Dead. It wasn't quite what I expected, but I loved it none the less! It was a perfect fun and relaxing ending to a rather exhausting day!